WHY JESUS WEPT
4!
SIR PERCY.
Come, rich, come overrolling ecstasy !
I am like to die with joy of everything.
ANGELA.
Die, then, and kiss me dead !
Sirk PERCY.
Idie! I die!
ANGELA.
Thy flower-life is shed
Into eternity,
A waveless lake.
SiR PERCY.
Sleep, sleep ! [He sleeps.
ANGELA.
I am awake—
And being awake I weary somewhat of
these jejune platitudes, these rampant ulula-
tions of preposterous puberty. These are
the very eructations of gingerbread ; they are
the flatulence of calf-sickness. I thought I
had taught the boy more sense. He weakens,
and I weary. As you will, my Lady Glen-
strae! Hortense! (HORTENSE enters with
a glass of brandy.) Brandy!
HORTENSE.
Iiere, milady.
ANGELA.
Not enough, you she-devil. More! More!
[Exit. ANGELA falls back ¢o sleep.
SCENE XI.
Paris. ANGELA, LORD and LADY GLEN-
STRAE, SIR PERCY DE PERCIVALE.
ANGELA.
You will not believe what I tell you?
These friends will tell you what I mean, and
if I mean it! You had your dismissal this
morning. Never dare to address me again !
SIR PERcy.
What! I have loved you, and you me—
No?—it cannot be so! and now—I am ill—
you cast me away! (7Zurns his face away.)
Forgive me, I am very weak.
ANGELA (goes to him and stands over him).
You shall have truth, you blind little fool.
I hate you. From the hour you kissed that
village drab, I hated you. I wanted your
youth, your strength, your life, your name
on my list, your scalp at my girdle. Enough !
Do you understand? These friends will
teach you. May I never see your pale pasty
face again !
[She spits at him and goes.
Sir Percy (Aadf rises and falls back).
Oh! oh! It is impossible. Lord Mar-
quis, you are a good man. Tell me, it isa
hideous dream.
GLENSTRAE.
No dream, my boy. You are the hundredth
she has treated after this fashion. But cheer
up now. There! There! Women are all
the same. Eh, Maud?
LADY GI.ENSTRAE.
Who calls? What do you want? Leave
me alone !
GLENSTRAE,
Ah, nothing! Nothing, my dear.
LADY GLENSTRAE.
Pull down the blinds.
GLENSTRAE.
Certainly, certainly, my dear, I will ring.
[Aings.